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More app promotions for the holiday season

After the completion of the AppVent calendar, not all the promotions are over. iPhone developers and publishers have been changing the price of their apps and games during the holidays season, most radically when iTunes Connect closed for holidays. We will have to keep tracking those prices changes individually, but some devs have teamed up to create cool initiatives. 

via flickr.com

Here's a list of the ones that you shouldn't miss:

  • 12 Days of Christmas (European iTunes only)

Hosted by Apple, this one appeared right after the announcement of the AppVent Calendar. The mechanic is the same: Everyday a free iTunes item. Notice it doesn't necessarily have to be an app/game. 
One of the novelties of this promotion is the inclusion of an iPhone app that will send you push notifications with alerts of the daily gift [iTunes Link]. I previously thought that it was a requirement to access the freebies, but it is not at all, besides the app will send you the notification even if you have seen the gift of the day. 

Some of the big players in iTunes are meant to participate and today we have Trivial Pursuit for free. That's what I call a nice 30th anniversary celebration! There are heavy rumors of Labyrinth and Let's Golf being included. From the 26th of December to the 6th of January, only is some European Stores. 

  • 12 Days of Christmas Apps

This is the indie spin off from the Apple promo where some devs active in Touch Arcade forums are collaborating. Some are actually top tier games that you have heard before: Hanged from Freeverse, Scarecrow by Ezone, Glenn Corpes' Ground Effect, 9000 BC, Harbor Master or Red Conquest. 

To have a chance to win one of the +600 promocodes donated to the initiative, you only need to register here and wait for some luck. The prizes are given away randomly, so there is no need to check the website everyday, which will prevent the games from having some extra exposure. You will receive an email with a link o check wether you have won or not. The promotion runs from  the 26th of December to the 6th of January, and this one is open to all countries. 

  • New Year's App Blowout! 

For New Year's Eve some apps are going to have a discounted price. Organised by Howling Moon Software, this end of the year sale will include their game Twilight Golf. Some popular devs have joined including games like Eyegore's Eye Blast, Train Conductor, Ringo and Outnumbered, amongst others. Some games already have the discounted price, so make sure you check out the full list. 

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Filed under  //  appstore   holiday   insight   promotions  
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Posted 2 months ago

Maps, the Apple way. Four ideas to improve user experience in the iPhone.

via flickr.com

A lot has been written about two of the last Apple job postings. Apple looking for an app developer with experience in games and weeks later asking for a top engineer with passion for maps. I really liked the comments from the Keith Andrew interview with Rob Fahey and his approach. The hiring is more likely to be oriented to prepare Apple to grow and to have internal knowhow to give a useful SDK to third party developers. 

I have to think that the job opening about maps has to go up that alley, and not necessarily to develop a substitute for the Maps app and to finish with Google. I don't think this is the case. It is true that Apple acquired last month Pla cebase, a mapping company, but I think they where more interested in their API that finding an immediate substitute for Google Maps. 

As an engineer on the Maps team, your responsibilities will range from implementing low-level client/server code to implementing high-level user interfaces. You'll be responsible for implementing new and innovative features, fixing problems and enhancing the performance of Maps. You will work closely with the other engineers on the Maps team, other iPhone and iPod touch teams as well our partners in other companies.
via jobs.apple.com

After reading the job description carefully  and reading some comments, seems clear to me that what Apple wants is to revamp the iPhone Maps. They're looking for an engineer to work on:
  • Base code, implementing Placebase's API PushPin.
  • User interface and usability (new app features will be added at some point).
  • iPhone teams, MapKit framework to use the new features in other apps and even desktop or MobileMe. 
Hence the title of my post. Apple what is really looking is to reinvent maps, continue using Google Maps, but the Apple way. We all agree that is not going to wait sitting to see how Android gets real navigation GPS, for example. 

There have been some innovations since the last Maps update. Now augmented reality is used in a bunch of apps, but not as impressive as I thought they could be. The navigators industry has jumped and created software and hardware for the platform. Could Apple imagine two years ago that TomTom would be fighting to be at the top earning lists in the App Store? Nope. 

There has been a lot going on. These are my five suggestions for them to catch up and bring Maps to the next level:

An app location aware
There must be a better way for "This app would like to use your current location". There must be a point between revealing too much information and not using it at all. If you think about it we use member cards for supermarkets, public transport and even gyms that track our behaviour. The moment your iPhone is aware of it's location it could do cool things for you and save time: Instead of a Tube map it could suggest a journey based on my daily commute in the mornings.

Augmented reality
So you use your camera and thanks to the iPhone compass you can see items in your screen. As futuristic as it sounds, this is in it's Stone Age. If Apple, or anyone else, can make that flat information be displayed around me more interactively and... smarter, it will be a huge step.  

Multi-perspective
Google has pictures from space. They even sent out cars to get a Street View perspective. Even Microsoft has pulled out a more than respectable Bird's Eye View for Visual Earth (now Bing). The most innovative concept I've seen in maps is Jack Schulze’s featured on WIRED where he included a multi-perspective view that combined satellite and street level in the same view. This is the beginning of something. 

Layered information
Using Placebase's PushPin to let third parties, read content providers, to include a wealth of informations to the maps. This could be traffic, demographics, traffic, tracking buses in their itineraries, properties for rent/sale,… you name it! A new layered Maps will contain Google's a base and custom content. This could be a powerful tool for all those maps apps that promote businesses (say Starbucks) and to have a chance to be in an Apple default app. 

This is my take on three aspects that could be integrated some day in our iPhones. What do you think? Are those feasible? Is Apple preparing something just in case their relation with Google deteriorates?

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Filed under  //  insight   iphone   ipod touch   maps   opinion   rumour  
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Posted 3 months ago

Integrating advertising in a game and how Real Racing GTI nailed it

If it has worked in other platforms why not on the iPhone? Grand Theft Auto and Need For Speed come to mind when thinking of good advertising blending. Is the iPhone, of game creators, able to do the same?

via flickr.com

There are games that have been created ad-hoc by advertisers. Think of Waterslide Barclays game or Carling's iBeer. Since then, car manufacturers, book publishers, hollywood studios have not been shy and have introduced an array of promotional apps in the store that have never been seen in the software industry. The apps and games in this category tend to split in two groups: 
- Apps that help you too use the advertised service (Think of Amazon, eBay, Barnes&Noble, Facebook, Pandora, Google, Flixter,…) You name it. 
- Apps that only aim to entertain the user and publicise it in social networks. (Zippo, Nikon, any major car manufacturer,…)

There is a thin line between the two, experiencing the service and the purely amusing part. After some attempts, VW has done it with the help from Firemint in Real Racing GTI. In the first place, I guess Volkswagen marketing people wanted to give potential drivers a feel of what the GTI is about. You might argue that it is only a game, but at least you simulate to drive (unlike Barclay's app, I don't take the waterside at my high street branch). The app contains a virtual showroom, a retail finder, which might save you a visit to their website. 

On the other side, there is the fun element. Real Racing is one of the top games in the iPhone racing category, if not the best. The VW board must be real appfreaks to use all the advertising budget for the GTI in a mobile phone game. When you team up with a successful studio like Firemint (Flight Control, Real Racing) to create a game that is entertaining and yet promotional / informative, you come with an spectacular free app. 

Moreover, RR GTI includes adverts inside the game. Well, the game and the race itself. This is an obvious trick, since motor sports are full of ads and sponsor logos, but this, somehow gives it realism. You even have BOSCH logos in the track! See the screenshot gallery here to see what I'm talking about.This is integration.  By the end of the day, you get an amazing free game that is going to rocket to the #1, get media attention and that the casual gamer will love. 

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Filed under  //  appstore   development   insight   iphone   ipod touch   trends  
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Posted 4 months ago

Playing Eliminate Pro can eliminate your money | The Download Blog

via flickr.com

Popular iPhone gaming developer Ngmoco released Eliminate Pro yesterday, its much-anticipated, online, first-person shooter. This well-polished "free" game features smooth looking graphics, onscreen controls that are fairly effective (no match for a controller or keyboard/mouse setup, but that's to be expected), a number of power ups to improve your weapons and armor, and five playable maps. In-game kills and winning matches earn you credits you can use to buy new weapons and armor. There are eight armor types, five weapon types, and items to buy like armor designs (skins) to give you a new look. The best part is that you get to play an online FPS from wherever you are on 3G or Wi-Fi against your friends or against players from around the world. The game uses the Plus+ network, so you'll need to register your character before you start playing online. Sounds pretty great, right? Not so fast.

via download.cnet.com

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Filed under  //  external   games   insight   iphone  
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Posted 4 months ago

Adobe talks a little smack on iPhone's inability to play Flash | 9 to 5 Mac

via flickr.com

If you try to go to a Flash site on your iPhone, you are often taken to Adobe's "Get Flash" page because the site thinks this is an option for you. It obviously isn't, of course. But for those who go to the "Get Flash" page on their iPhone, Adobe is adding some sass to their "iPhone doesn't support Flash" message.

This message has been around for awhile (as far as we remember) but it has only lately specified iPhone. Perhaps to differentiate between mobile Webkit browser that support Flash like Android and Blackberry will and those that don't.

via 9to5mac.com

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Filed under  //  apple   external   insight   iphone  
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Posted 4 months ago

Are You an iPhone App Addict? 1% are, says Flurry

via flickr.com

Flurry, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics company, says that in September, about half a million people among the 40 million users it tracked used apps more than 100 times per month.

via gigaom.com

1,2% of appfreaks use an one more than 100 times a month.

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Posted 4 months ago

The price of going free | Tapity

via flickr.com

If you’re thinking about switching to the free+ model or promoting your app by giving it away for a short time, read on. A developer, who asked to remain anonymous, recently shared his experience with me. I’m glad he’s letting me share, as I think this could save you some pain.

via tapity.com

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Posted 4 months ago

Advertising in iPhone apps - Three tactics revised (part 1)

Most of the newspapers, magazines, websites, TV programs and radio have something in common. They are a medium for advertising since you can remember. With the time, media outlets and advertisers have developed in most of the cases formats that allow marketeers to use space for commercial purposes. This is how we think of newspapers and blogs nowadays. Don't get me started with, let's say, search engines. 

With Apple's revolutionary phone plus an ipod running the same system, the iPhone platform was yet to be exploited. In the early days without App Store, the only way to include ads in the iDevices was through web applications. As soon as Apple released their first SDK and allowed third party software installation, they also kick started the advertising age for the iPhone. 

Omar Hamoui, founder of one of the iPhone ad networks, AdMob, puts it this way: "The original assumption behind the iPhone was you can browse the entire Web on your iPhone. What a logical person would think, therefore, was that the iPhone was going to have the same advertising you see on the Web. So why would a company design special ads for the iPhone? There is no need."

Who remembers those days. If Barclayscard's waterslide game made it to #1 in the iPhone app charts, it wasn't certainly the first incursion of a company bringing content to the iPhone platform. iBeer was pretty much the first well thought sponsored app. These are apps commissioned and rarely developed in-house. A new source of clients for app developers. Greystripe have seen an average 10% click-through rate. Brook Lenox has used many mobile ad networks and has a great post about it.

But what is the appeal of sponsored apps for the end user? Let me start with one of the three advertising categories that I will cover in the next days:

1. Apps with conventional third party ads - You've got it in most of the top 50 free  apps in the App Store. I will start with this one because I feel if the most straight forward method. If it works on TV why not on the iPhone?

via youtube.com

This is, a game or app that includes a promotional game. There are ad networks that allow developers and publishers to include these easily and get some ROI. In many occasions these sort of ads are included in Lite versions.  From my experience these ads usually advertise other apps, and if you allow me, apps that are perfectly unknown and have dubious quality. 

In most of the cases, the ads are not so intrusive and are placed on top or bottom of a menu. Sometimes are hardly noticeable and they try to blend with the rest of the app. 

The most flagrant case that I have managed to find is this:
Why would you include a Thinkberry Ad inside the game itself? This is the gameplay, not a menu! Besides that, who would allow an app with a bum to be included in their app? I'm sorry, but for me this makes it loose all credibility and I my ethics forced to delete the app before finishing the game. I'm sure many people feel this way, so this represents a big waste of time and resources. I don't see what revenue figures justify something like this. 

What do you think about third party ads in your iPhone apps? Do you think is worth it? Have you clicked on those ads?
Please let me know in the comments. 

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Filed under  //  appstore   development   insight   iphone   ipod touch   trends  
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Posted 4 months ago

Home Screen Analysis: Too Many Apps, Too Few Good Ones - theappleblog

via theappleblog.com

This is a fantastic article by Alfredo Padilla where he explains his point of view of the quality in the Apple Store.

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Posted 4 months ago

How far can we trust apps? | Real World Computing | PC Pro

via flickr.com

How far can we trust apps?

Posted on 30 Oct 2009 at 13:03

Davey Winder wonders if we trust apps and web services a little more than we should

I had an interesting email exchange with a reader recently about his Twitter account. He’d read warnings about giving his login details to companies that claimed to increase his followers, so just who could he trust with this information?

via pcpro.co.uk

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Posted 4 months ago